One Second
by XxParadoxical-PrincessxX
Summary: When a deadly disease takes Eric from his family, can Calleigh pull herself together in time to prove that it only takes a second to take a life?
1. Prologue

A/N: Okay, I promise that I have not forgotten about the 'Guides' – but I have recently been reading this book called 'Nineteen Minutes' by Jodi Picoult and I was so inspired by the little analogies at the beginning of every chapter that I've decided to write my own story like it. It will be nowhere as good as the book itself, as nobody could rival the brilliance of that story in a mere parody, but I'll sure try my best. If nothing else, I implore you to pick that book up – buy it, rent it, borrow it, _something! _Just read the damn thing! – it is a true tearjerker, and I really did love it. Believe me, it's not often that I give a book such high praise, so I do truly think it'd be worth the time and effort to read.

Disclaimer: CSI Miami belongs to whoever owns it...Nineteen Minutes belongs to Jodi Picoult...This story...Belongs to me...

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Chapter One: Prologue.

_Eric POV - Second Person._

You look into his eyes…they're a shining emerald green. He got those from his mother, you realise. You've realised that so many times in the last 5 minutes and every time it's like a Tsunami of awe crashing over you.

Calleigh's asleep in the bed next to you, poor thing looks exhausted, you note lovingly and you put your (now sleeping) son in the crib next to her and reach over to gently caress her cheek with your knuckles. She murmurs something about a 'Big Mac' and you bite back a chuckle; McDonalds had been her No. 1 craving throughout the entire pregnancy, and you'd be surprised if every employee who works the night-shift there didn't know your name, so often had you been there at 4 AM because she was 'desperate' for some fries and a soda.

Your attention drifts back to the baby lying in the small bed, and you can't help but walk back over to him, feeling the smooth, feathery hair on the top of his head. You still don't have a name for him, but that's okay – these things take time…. Much like the birth, you recall with a shudder.

It's been absolute agony for you, not that you'd have admitted that in front of her…you do _want _to be able to have another child with her someday after all..

She'd been in labour for 6 days when the doctor suggested a C-Section,

"No Way!" Calleigh practically screamed at him "I've been here for 6 days in FUCKING AGONY, begging for a C-Section, I'm not going to tolerate having gone through so much pain if I cannot bring my baby into this worked the natural way. GOT IT!"

You had to hand it to the doctor, he'd put up a decent fight, and Calleigh had just been about to give in when she started screaming because 'She needed to PUSH'. In the end, Calleigh had gotten the natural birth she wanted, and the baby was no worse-for-wear.

A small stir in the hospital bed beside him had snapped you out of your reverie and you move to accommodate the warm feeling of Calleigh's light head on your lap.

"Hey gorgeous." You whisper, gently brushing the hair from her face.

Calleigh chuckles a little, "I don't feel very gorgeous at the moment" pausing for a moment she looks into your defiant eyes and places a finger over your plump lips before continuing, "how's he doing?"

"You mean Tigger?" you say. You don't yet have a real name for the small baby, but he already has a variety of nicknames; Tigger (because of the small teddy-bear that was in the crib next to him), Bullet-Baby (_what! _He's related to Calleigh…you'd long since reasoned to yourself) and so on..

"Tigger?" Calleigh asks….she's not accustomed to his nicknames yet

You chuckle again…"I meant our little one." you clarify. "And he's doing just fine, he's asleep at the moment."

Calleigh smiled, "Can I hold him?" she asked faintly, your face deadpans.

"Calleigh, He's our child…you can hold him whenever you want, never feel like you have to ask permission, it's a mother's prerogative to hold her babies."

"Noted." She said, winking at him and propping herself up, you make sure she's comfortable and fluff up her pillows before reaching down to pick up the snoozing baby, rocking him gently to your toned chest before passing him over to Calleigh, who immediately nestled him in close and whispered 'hello' to him. Seeing the two together practically melts your heart and you take out your phone to capture the moment forever...you'll always remember it in your heart, but you want some physical momentum to show off to all the guys at the lab, a sort of '_look at me, I have a stunning wife, and an adorable baby – you jealous?…you should be!'_

Calleigh turns her head to look at you when she hears the click of the camera and smiles after she realises what you've taken a photo of. "like what you see Delko?" she asks with a coy smile on her face, you marvel at that – it's been what? 3 hours since she _finally _gave birth and she's already back on form, smiling, witty, so _breathtakingly beautiful…_

"You could say that.." you murmur back, before stealing her lips for a split second in the sweetest kiss imaginable. The baby in her arms fusses gently and you allow your eyes to look into his _perfect _face again.

"He's just so darn cute!" Calleigh says, letting her southern accent thicken a little, you like it when she does that – it makes her seem a little more.._motherly?_

"That he is, he's going to grow up to be a heartbreaker, I can tell" you declare somewhat proudly.

"Well, then I feel sorry for the poor girls he has his eyes set on." Calleigh chuckles, "No, seriously, he's not allowed to date until he's at least 70." She says, but one look into her eyes and you can tell that she's only joking.

"Hey Eric?" she asks again, and you tear your eyes away from your son to look her in the eyes and nearly die at the sight, she's crying a little and her eyes are shining with something other than the tears.

"Babe, what's wrong? Does it hurt? Where does it hurt? I can get somebody, Nurse, NURSE!" you panic before she rests a hand on your arm and chuckles before saying,

"Eric, I'm fine, nothing hurts, really – these are happy tears!" she smiles and laughs silently at your exhale of relief.

"Oh, good! What's up then?" you ask before taking a more comfortable position with her head on your chest and the baby resting between the two of you, _when did hospital beds get this big…_

"I was going to ask if you had a name for him yet?" She murmured into her chest, burying her chin into that little nook between your collarbone and your chest.

"No, not yet…" You reply and she lifts her head up and raises an eyebrow.

"Well, we're not calling him 'Tigger' forever…"

~One Second~

In one second you can fall in love, you can make a decision.. or two, you can slam the car door, and you can say yes to a proposal. In one second you can change the world, you can gain somebody's trust, make an alliance, and gain a confidante…

In one second…you can stop a heart.


	2. Goodbye

_15 years later…_

Calleigh forced back the tears in her eyes. She would _not _allow herself cry today.

She had to be strong for her babies, for them and for herself, she knew that once the first tiny tear made it's way down her cheek, the rest were going to come out in an explosion that all the cement in the world couldn't block up.

She watched as they carried his coffin into the church and held onto her last resemblance of self-control. She wanted to get up there, to rip the coffin over and pull Eric from it, make the whole world realise that he was still alive, that he hadn't left her, that he was still _here…_

Danny 'Tigger' Delko saw his mother struggling to keep a hold of herself and reached out to pull her into a hug. At just 15 he was already taller than his mother, something he'd always secretly loved, but today wished wasn't so, because he felt the need to be cradled, like back when he was young and fallen over and hurt his knee. Of course, the pain that he was feeling now, was worse than any scraped knee he'd ever experienced as a child.

His father was dead. He was 'man of the house'. But he was just a boy

...

Calleigh and Eric's youngest child Iona was 8 years old. She'd practically had to _beg _her mother to let her come to the funeral. Calleigh hadn't wanted her to experience the feeling of having to say such a permanent goodbye at such a young age, but had soon realised that she was trying to protect herself a little more than she was trying to protect Iona.

The small-for-her-age 8-year-old sang the hymn with everything she had in her. Eric had so often called her 'his little hummingbird' due to both her size, and her ability to hit any note on the scale with ease. He'd nearly burst with pride when the priest at their local church informed him that they wanted Iona to be head girl for the children's choir.

Isla and David were the couple's 12-year-old twins. If it hadn't been for the fact that they were the opposite sex, then Calleigh and Eric would have had a hell of a task trying to tell the difference between them as babies. Isla had her father's personality, and David had his mother's.

David also had bad eczema and asthma, something which Calleigh and Eric were scared shitless of when they first bought him home with them after the hospital. Every night they would battle against his skin, slathering soothing creams and herbal remedies over the cracking and blistering surface just to bring their baby some small resemblance of comfort. As he'd gotten older, it'd gotten better; it only flared up in the summer (because of his strong allergy to pollen – which was surprisingly manageable) and in the winter (because of the school's policy that everybody had to wear a pullover during the winter months, something Eric and Calleigh had battled against furiously.) His asthma was easier to control however, as the boy only really did bodybuilding and swimming for sport, he rarely ever over-exerted himself because he knew the dangers. Calleigh often called him 'her little survivor' and he _was. _He'd been through so much in his little life and still found the time to help his parents with chores and helped Iona with her homework when she struggled.

Isla was Calleigh's 'Little Willow', her long golden hair reached halfway down her spine and she wore floaty bohemian style clothing all the time. Isla was a big fan of Alternative Rock and Indie Music, and she was part of a professional dancing group that consisted of children between the ages of 7-19 taking part in dancing competitions all around the country. From an early age, she'd been fascinated with her parent's career choice; she'd once (when she was 5 years old) snuck into their CSI cupboard at home and taking the fingerprint dust and scattering it all around her bedroom to 'summon the faeries mommy!' Eric had truly loved his first-born daughter and she'd had him wrapped right round her pinkie finger.

And last, but not least: Danny. Straight A report card, killer smile and a smile the size of Russia, he held anybody's and _every_body's heart from the moment he was born. From the age of about 7 years old he'd been dating (much to his parent's amusement) a pretty girl from England named Gracie. He was nothing if not honest, and he'd never so much as even thought about lying to his parents. He was hardly ever called Tigger now, but whenever he was, he'd secretly love it as it was the first name he'd ever been called other than 'Baby Boy Delko'.

Yes, Calleigh was equally proud of all her children. They were all strong and resilient, forces to be reckoned with. Back the family home there were plenty of photo albums scattered across the bookshelves, filled to the brim with pictures of the Delko clan, a sight Calleigh never thought she'd have been so lucky to see, so afraid of falling in love with Eric she'd been only 17 years ago.

After the funeral was over and the after 'party' (Eric had wanted a gathering of people to 'Celebrate' his life, not to mourn his death and depress his children, they didn't need that.) They'd all helped Calleigh clear up the lounge, and now the whole family gathered in the small-ish dining room that now seemed a lot bigger and started to recount their favourite memories with Eric,

"Can I go first Mami?" Iona asked. Calleigh smiled and nodded at her youngest child's enthusiasm. "Okay, well mine is the time we all went round Abuela's for Thanksgiving 2 years ago." The older children nodded and smiled, each remembering exactly what happened. "Mami, you hadn't arrived yet." Calleigh remembered that, Horatio had apologetically called her in to analyse some bullets, a task that hadn't really bothered her, she never got to be in the ballistics anymore.. "Anyway," Iona continued, "Papa was laying the table with Uncle Pablo and Auntie Vanessa when we all heard this almighty boom!" she reiterated this with a flick of her tiny hands, "we all ran outside and Papa started to shout really crazy things and lots of swear words," The other three children again laughed silently at this, "and it turned out that Terror had dragged the turkey outside and was trying to sneak it into the coal shed, not realising that there was a giant barbeque perched on the tabletop." She recounted most of this for Calleigh's benefit, as she had not been there. "The reason being, that this is one of my favourite memories of papa was that he'd spent ages making himself look presentable, gotten his good suit dry-cleaned, his hair was all in place, and by the time that evening finished, he was like regular old Papa again." Iona finished, there was a hint of sadness in her tone and Calleigh pulled her in close for a hug. Calleigh often forgot that Iona was only 8 years old, due to the fact that the child was very mature inside; she'd had to be.

The room was nearly crackling with tension and sadness as Calleigh rubbed soothing circles on Iona's back, the young girl was finally letting her grieving happen within the privacy of her own home. Isla, deciding to lighten the mood, started with her favourite memory with her father:

"My favourite memory is my first Dance Recital, I was 5 years old and I was the mouse in Swan Lake," she said, smiling. "I thought I was the star of the show, and Papa certainly didn't disagree, do you remember how much money he spent buying me the perfect little mouse costume and my sparkly green Tutu Mami?" She asked, only to be rewarded with a jokingly wry smile from Calleigh, Eric had kept the bill of the dress a secret for about a year before Calleigh got a hold of that receipt, Isla continued after a pause, "I remember, when I was on that stage, I forgot my dancing steps and I was nearly in tears because all the other little mouse girls were doing it perfectly. Papa stood up, right in the middle of the audience," she stopped to laugh, "Mami you were begging him to just sit down, and he was instructing me, saying 'Left foot forward…' and so on… after a couple of steps I remembered the whole thing and he sat down, but it will always be my favourite memory of him." Isla finished, smiling.

Calleigh looked around the room, she looked at the faced of each of her babies (no matter what _anybody _said, and no matter how many people disapproved, they would _always _be her babies.) and smiled slightly, Danny as looking exactly like his father, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed and a determined look on his face. David sat on the seat next to his twin and had his arm wrapped around her shoulders, hugging her as she silently sobbed, the look on his face matching Danny's exactly.

"Mine," Danny said gruffly, "Was the day he told us he had cancer." Everybody stiffened as he

said that, _what was that supposed to mean? _"He told us each individually, if you remember," _how could they forget.. _" he told Mom first, then Iona, then Isla, then David, then me. I don't know exactly what it was lie for you guys, but I looked in his eye the entire time. There was _something _there. Something I'd never seen in his eyes before…it was defiance. And I don't mean the type of defiance that a 4-year-old gets when they're asked if they ate the last cookie in the jar, I mean the type of defiance that he knew he;d beat it." Danny paused to look up at his family and quietly added, "Guess I'd never realised just quite how strong Dad was until that day.."

Calleigh felt the tears coming and this time there as nothing she could do to stop them. She hated herself in that moment, she hated herself for crying in front of her children when she knew that they were only just breaking down themselves. Danny however, saw that is mother was trying to hold it all in and drew her into a hug. Calleigh was both surprised and grateful for this, Danny was a carbon copy of his father in every single way, right down from his looks and personality, to his kindness and love of all things to do with water. She thanked her lucky stars for the _millionth _time that day that their children had been prepared for this, and that Eric's death hadn't just been sprung upon them in an instant, deep inside, she knew that she wouldn't have been able to cope with that.

All of a sudden, David left the room, Isla got up to follow him, but Calleigh put a and on her arm and told her to 'let him grieve in his own way.' 5 minutes later, David came beck with a baseball bat in his hands.

"Sorry about that," he said, somewhat regretfully. "I had to find this to be able to explain mine properly. Isla, do you remember our 8th birthday?" Isla nodded, "Well, you got to go shopping with mom for the day as your treat, and I got to go see the baseball match with dad. While we were there it started storming, we got absolutely soaked." He paused, laughing, "and dad just took off his coat and gave it to me so I wouldn't get all wet. There he was in his short-sleeved tee, cheering on our team, and eating the last of the popcorn, while I was there, trying to rival him by screaming loudly too. At the end of the match we were wet and muddy. Mom nearly fainted when we got inside, treading mud all over the place." Calleigh gave him that 'look', David then turned his head around to look her directly in the eye, "Then he just spun you around and kissed you. You took one look at him and just dissolved in laughter. It's my favourite memory of dad because it was one of those times that you never could have planned. We just went with it." He finished with a sigh.

Calleigh smiled fondly at the memory, Eric always had been the only one who was able to calm her down, no matter what the circumstances were. She didn't know how she was going to cope without him in her life. But looking around the room for the 19th time that minute, she knew that she was going to have to find a way; if not for herself then for her babies.

~One Day~

In one day you can say goodbye to a loved one.

It's funny how even the most happy of memories can turn bittersweet in the space of 24 hours, how the carefully placed masks can fall down when strangers aren't there to observe your every move. It's funny how that, in the space of a day; you can go from being a normal, _sane _person, into a complete monster.

Funny, isn't it?


	3. Tears

A/N: Hey there, thank you for the reviews! It's just a small chapter this time, but I'll make up for that in the next one.

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'The walls we build around ourselves to keep out sadness, also keep out joy' ~ Jim Rohn

Later that night…

Calleigh was lying on the big couch in the lounge. She couldn't go up into her room, _their _room. The smell of his cologne on the pillow next to her, the clothes that hung in the deep mahogany wardrobe, the bed – _oh, _the bed where they had lay awake in each others arms for hours on end. No, it was just too hard to set foot in that room.

She could hear the rain on the windows and the slight buzz emanating from the refrigerator in the next room along, but even those – once soothing – rhythms could not lull her into slumber tonight, _what if the kids need me? What if Isla..Danny..David..Iona? What IF?_

She pondered on the 'what ifs' all night;

_What if Eric were still alive? _

_Would he be holding me tonight? _

_Would he be working a case? _

_Out with the boys?_

_Tucking our babies in?_

The list was endless and so was her guilt. She kept thinking that if only she had _forced _him to go to the doctor sooner, then all this would not have happened.

Well, so she thought...

* * *

Upstairs in his room, Danny was having similar thoughts. His revolved more around his mother. He could hear her mewling like a lost kitten downstairs and it was breaking his heart to hear her cry in her sleep. He'd always been fiercely protective of his mother; he'd even (once) taken to pretending to be her 'toyboy' when some jerk came up to her in the mall asking for a little something-something. Calleigh had played along and then berated him harshly for it in case 'someone from child services got the wrong idea' but he could see the laughter in her eyes. He knew he was like his father in a lot of ways. He was strong, family orientated, and stubborn, to name but a few traits. He also knew that there was a chance that the Cancer that had consumed his father may come back with a vengeance for _him_, but he was focusing on getting his family through this.

He remembered when he was little, how everyday before school he would lie and say he had a headache to get out of school (he hated Math class with a passion). Eric had never had any of it though, and always sent him off with a 'now remember son, one day you're gonna be Man Of This House, and I need you to be big, strong and smart to look after your Momma'. Danny would then always walk out of the door with a smile on his face and a secret wish that he would never have to be man of the house; he could never compare to his father, or so he thought.

But now the time had come for him to be 'Man of the house', and he would sure as hell try his hardest to live up to his father. He heard a noise downstairs and knew in that very instant that he was not the only Delko still awake.

He jumped down from his bed and began the slow trek downstairs. He knew that his Mother would probably jump and wipe the tears away with the back of her hand and try to profess that she was all 'fine and good' but she knew that he knew different. He resented his father at that moment; _how__ dare he just go away and leave us? I need him, Mom needs him! _Just as quickly as the thought came, he banished it; he felt awful and selfish for even thinking it.

He jumped as a flash of lightning lit up the eerily quiet hallway. As the sound of thunder resonated throughout the room he quickened his pace, anxious to get to his Mother; he knew that she hated thunderstorms.

Sure enough, there he found her, curled up in a ball on the couch. Wearing one of Eric's old basketball jerseys and a pair of tracksuit bottoms, she looked young and innocent. Her face however, told another story. Her puffy red cheeks and chapped lips indicated that she had indeed been crying and Danny reached out to tap her shoulder.

Calleigh jumped up just as he was millimetres away from reaching her, scaring the both of them. Wordlessly, he sat down on the couch and drew Calleigh into a hug. She sobbed as she apologised over and over again.

"I'm sorry, it should be me comforting you right now." She said meekly, looking up to meet her eldest son's eyes. He scoffed lightly

"Like hell, Mom, we all miss him. Why should you have to be the only person who bottles up your feelings?"

"I'm supposed to be the strong one." She whispered, forgetting to berate him for saying the 'h' word. Danny looked confused and motioned for her to continue, "Sweetie, there's a reason why we do not see my parents. They weren't like your father and me; they didn't give a damn about me; I was left to fend for myself at a very young age. I went through things that _no _child should have to go through, I learned what it felt like to be abandoned very early on. I also learned never to cry, to show what I was feeling, it was a coping mechanism, a way of escape. If I kept my feelings to myself, then nobody could pity me."

Danny stared back, shocked; he thought that the reason they did not see the Duquesne's was because there was some sort of family row. He never in a million years could have thought…

Calleigh smiled wryly and reached to touch his arm soothingly, "It's alright, there is no way you could have known. Don't you worry! I am going to be fine, and so are you."

Danny laughed despairingly at that, "Dad told me to watch out for that; the way you say 'I'm fine'. Mom, promise me that if you ever need to talk that you'll come to me. It's times like this that we need to stick together. Enough of this 'I'm-the-parent-therefore-I-cannot-cry-in-front-of-the-kids' crap. Seriously Mom, you have to promise me!" He pleaded, looking desperately into her eyes. She smiled weakly, holding him close.

"I promise." She laughed; he reminded so much of Eric…

"I found David sleeping in your Dad's Study about an hour ago." Calleigh continued, "I think we all need to get away from here for a while." noticing the stricken look on Danny's face she backtracked, "Not for too long, and not just yet; I need to sort my work out first. But I was thinking that maybe in a month's time that we could go back to the Copamarina in Guánica."

Danny smiled faintly; he'd always loved the family vacations to Puerto Rico and it seemed like the perfect way to come to peace with everything that'd gone down over the past year.

"That's settled then." Calleigh smiled, seeing the approving look on her eldest son's face.

* * *

_The Next Night_

Calleigh stared at the painted white door, _just reach for the doorknob, slowly twist, and enter the room, _she instructed herself. But, as easy at is was to think, doing it was another matter altogether. She wasn't sure if she was ready to let all the memories back in.

Sure enough, 2 minutes later she was sat on the edge of the bed. The crushed blue satin of the comforter felt good underneath her hand and the smell of Cinnamon pervaded her senses as she closed her eyes and leaned back heavily against the pillow. Tears prickled against the corners of her eyelids and she just opened her eyes and let them fall; she'd been holding back for far too long and it had finally taken its toll on her.

_My favourite memory... _she thought to herself...

...

~One Night~

It takes just one night to watch the moon move across the sky, to see the constallations, and to go for a midnight swim. It takes only one night to burn the midnight oil, to hide in the moonlit alleys and to forget your troubles in the safe surroundings of sleep.

It takes one night to let go of all your inhibitions and to finally let the tears fall.


End file.
